Guardian
by Aryael
Summary: A marauder-era, semi-romantic, soap-opera-ish story, now with 30% more crying, yelling, amnesia, death, and love triangles!!
1. Chapter 1

Yay!! First Harry Potter fan fic. I've never read a Harry Potter fan fic before (but I'll get to one soon) so I don't know the standard for writing fan fics...I'm just pissed that they killed off Sirius and this is kinda my mini-tribute to him. Reviews would be nice, but my stories never seem to get reviewed for some reason...anyway, anyone wanna beta read this? 

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Chapter One

Steorra MIng plopped herself down on the toilet, glad to finally relieve herself after having too much iced pumpkin juice at breakfast. The bathroom door creaked open and Steorra saw two pairs of high-heel wearing feet come in. An annoying, slightly nasal voice laughed at something her friend said. It was a laugh Steorra knew all too well. It was that of Marie Hallicomb, the most sought-after slut in the sixth year with her fake blonde hair and probably even faker boobs. Steorra was just about to get up and flush when she heard her name mentioned. _Idiots, probably don't even realize that I'm here, _she thought and remained to see what Marie had to say.

"So anyway, did you see him? He was so totally hot and he was so totally checking me out!" Marie squeaked excitedly. Her voice seemed to be even more annoyingly nasal and high-pitched when she was all excited.

"Doesn't he have a girlfriend? That one Chinese girl?" Marie's friend asked timidly.

"Steorra? I doubt she has a chance! I don't even know why Sirius hangs out with her," Marie said, a bit resentful, "She's such a dork! And those glasses! Ugh!"

Steorra decided that she'd had enough at the moment and flushed. She stepped out from behind that stall and smiled sweetly at Marie and her friend, whom she recognized as Caitlin Banner, a fifth year.

"Hi Marie, hi Caitlin," she said, still smiling as she washed her hands, "Hope you're having fun planning your non-existent futures with Sirius. Have you set a wedding date yet?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

Marie's face reddened buy she didn't say anything. _Smart move,_ Steorra thought, _probably doesn't want to ruin her chances with Sirius._ Steorra dried her hands and strode purposefully out of the bathroom. The halls were empty. She had lingered too long to listen to the conversation. She set off at a run for Defense Against the Dark Arts from the forth floor bathroom and rushed in, hoping no one would notice.

"Miss MIng?" Professor Rutherford looked up from whatever he was doing as the rest of the class was assigned to read. "You're late again, Steorra. Detention, I think."

A familiar snicker reached her ears as she looked over and gave Sirius a dark look.

"Would you like join her, Mr. Black?" Professor Rutherford looked at Sirius severely over the rim of his glasses. He was an old man with a few wisps of white hair left. He constantly has a scowl on his face and never seemed satisfied with anything or anyone.

"No, of course not, Professor," Sirius said with a serious look on his face, one that could fool any teacher into thinking that he was actually an assiduous student.

Professor Rutherford turned his eyes back to Steorra, "Are you going to stand there all class, Ming, or a re you going to take a seat?"

"Oh," Steorra quickly slid into the chair in the last row behind Sirius.

"You will read chapter three on counter-jinxes," Rutherford said and went back to whatever he was doing.

Steorra took out her book. A piece of tattered parchment was stuck between the pages. She was about to put it back when an untidy scrawl not unlike Sirius' appeared:

"What? Did you fall into the toilet in the bathroom or something? I was about to send out a search party for you."

Steorra quickly scribbled back: "I was held back, okay? Get over it."

"What did you get held back by?" Sirius wrote back.

Steorra gave an exasperated sigh, which she realized too late was actually audible and quickly pretended to read as Professor Rutherford looked up. "Girl Problems," she quickly wrote back and threw the parchment back into her bag.

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It was Friday and the afternoons of the sixth years were free that day. It was December and the grounds were frozen over. many had hoped for snowfall since October, some had even tried some "proven" family enchantments, but no snow came. However, a glittering white frost did cover everything, giving the outside an ethereal feel. If it weren't so cold, Steorra would have liked to run around outside.

At this moment, however, Steorra was busy gossiping with Lily Evans on who was going with whom to the Yule Ball.

"I'm going with James," Lily whispered as if it was a big secret.

"Well, of course. We've all known that for ages. question is who I'm going with," Steorra said. She was starting to panic a bit as Yule Ball drew closer and it seemed that everyone had a date but her.

"How about Sirius?" Lily suggested, "Aren't you two really close friends?"

Steorra acted overly surprised, though she was, "My eye candy and boy toy doesn't have a date yet? Why, the indignity of it all!"

Lily giggled and shook her head. Steorra always called Sirius her eye candy and boy toy. It'd started when they met in their third year. She told Sirius what a sweetie and how cute he was when he helped her up as Marie and her friends pretty much ran over her. It'd just come out all of a sudden. Sirius had looked like he was going to gag at first, but the broke into that trademark crooked grin. "I'll be your eye candy, then," he had said.

She didn't quite remember when "boy toy" came into use, but it was probably after Sirius hit puberty and the hormones started raging. He was constantly going out with one girl after another, and getting laid by just about every one of them. Steorra had always thought his girlfriends were sluts who spent too much time dealing with outer appearances and still did.

"Well, I can't ask him now. I've got detention with Rutherford," Steorra checked her watch and quickly rushed to the portrait hole. She trudged slowly down the hall, hoping to put off the inevitable as long as possible. But unfortunately, she found herself at Rutherford's door all too soon. She slowly turned the knob and opened the door. Rutherford sat at his desk, apparently waiting for her.

"Ah, good. You're on time," he said and beckoned her forth. With a wave of his wand, a cage of Red Caps, a tub of water and an empty cage appeared. "It would seem that out Red Caps have started dying off from disease because of their...unsanitary conditions. You are to clean them off and put them in the empty cage. I expect them all to be spotless by morning." Rutherford left as Steorra racked her mind for ideas.

It ended up with her having to stun each Red Cap in succession as she took it out and dunked it in water. But the end of detention, six hours later, she was covered in bites, scratches, and bruises, have to chase after several Red Caps which escaped, making her run around the class, bumping into desks and chairs in the process. Due to her Red Cap bites, which were poisonous and her hand started to swell and turn into a black-green color, she had to go to the hospital wing, where Madam Pomfrey applied some thick, smelly green gel which stun and wrapped her hands heavily in bandages.

"Teachers these days. They don't care about their students' well-being anymore..." Madam Pomfrey muttered darkly, "Cleaning Red Caps...such dangerous work...You'll have to keep these bandages on for three days, dear. You may go now," and Madam Pomfrey rushed her out of the hospital wing.

Steorra quickly ran back as fast as her sore legs could carry her back to the Gryffindor common room, hoping to have a few snatches of conversation with Lily before turning in. To her surprise, the common room wasn't as quiet as it should be at midnight. Everyone seemed to be celebrating. Only Lily sat on the fringe, scowling darkly into the crowd.

"What's wrong, Lily?" Steorra asked, sitting down next to her friend on the couch. It felt good to finally be able to lean back, after being stooped down for six hours.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Star," she said, "But boys can be real jerks at times."

"What? Is it James?' Steorra asked.

Lily shook her head, "No. It's Sirius."

"What about him?"

Steorra's question was answered as Sirius plopped down next to her on the couch and put his arms around her, announcing grandly, "Star, your eye candy is going to be a man soon!" When Steorra stared at him quizzically, he continued, "I just got Marie Hallicomb to go to the Yule Ball with me!" Steorra's amused smile turned into a deep frown.

"The Marie Hallicomb?"

"Of course, is there any other tall, blonde, and really hot girl in sixth year?" Sirius said, apparently not noticing Steorra's change in expression.

"You're kidding, right?" Steorra was starting to get angry now. She didn't quite know why as the rage bubbled up inside her. Perhaps is was the time Marie cursed her and made her sprout ferns from her head, or maybe her know-it-all attitude toward everyone else, or maybe it was combination of those things, but they really made her explode.

"She quickly stood up, towering over Sirius and slapped him, which really turned into a thump because her hands were so heavily bandaged.

"How shallow can you get, you bastard? What the hell do you see in that vapid, ugly, two faced, backstabbing, slutty bimbette? Is there a piece missing in your brain or something?" She screamed. the common room had quieted down as everyone listened to Steorra's fit.

Lily placed a hand on her shoulders, "It's okay, Star. There are other guys, "she said soothingly, but Steorra shook her off.

"How can you even stand to look at that bitch, much less be near her for a whole night?" She continued. Innumerable injustices in her life stoked the raging fire inside of her.

"If you want to go to Yule Ball with me, that's fine. You mean more to me than Marie," Sirius said quietly, not a bit of his usual humor in his voice.

Inside, Steorra wanted to melt at how Sirius was when he wanted to be, but her rage still burned, "I don't need your pity," she spat in his face. "I'll get my own date." Her eyes fell on Remus Lupin, who stood next to James, his mouth hanging wide open. "Remus, come to Yule Ball with me."

Remus was caught off-guard. His eyes darted from Steorra to Sirius, then back to steorra. "Uh...okay, I guess."

"Good," Steorra snapped and gave Sirius a scathing look before storming back to the girls dormitories.


	2. Chapter 2

OK, Chapter two...hope you liked chapter one. I know it's kinda boring but it's necessary exposition. OK...prolly not, I hate exposition in most stories, especially in LotR...I mean come on, do you really have to waste 3 chapters explaining how Aragorn and Legolas are running?? Geez...OK, this chapter is a bit of an internal monologue thing...it's fun for characters to share their feelings, and due to my amazing skills learned in LIt, this story is written from an omniscient third person PoV...or maybe it was semi-omniscient...oh well...I did get an A on my lit finals...if it weren't for that stupid A- in econ, I'd still have a 4.0....grrr....*growls some more* Well...I suppose a 3.98 is fine too...

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Chapter Two :: Sirius

Sirius woke up the next morning a bit more groggy than he usually was. He shook his head a few times, trying to clear it up. Something had happened last night. It was something big. There was an awful lot of yelling and dirty looks from Lily...and Star...there was an awful lot of yelling from her too. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. His stomach gave an unpleasant lurch and he gulped. Sirius clambered out of bed and groped his way to James' four-poster, pulled back the hangings and shook James awake.

"Wha?" James slurred.

"Did what I think happen last night really happen?" Sirius asked.

"Well, what'd you think happened?" James replied.

"Did Star scream her head off at me?"

"Oh, yeah," James answered, "I never knew she had a thing for you though, or I wouldn't have told you to go for Hallicomb."

Sirius groaned and ran his hand through his shaggy black hair. Steorra? His Star? They've been friends for years and he never thought about her as more than a friend at all. He didn't think so anyway. There was that one time when one of her boyfriends made her cry and he'd transfigured the guy into a rat and kept it in a cage by his bed for three days until the teachers finally issued a search and found the rat nearly dead from starvation. Even Sirius had admitted that that incident was overdone, but it was only because he didn't want Star to be hurt. Star had never seemed to been interested in himself beyond a friend either. Well, that is, unless you count that time in fourth year when Star shoved him against a wall in the corridors and kissed him passionately on the lips. But as Steorra later revealed, it was because some creepy Slytherin sixth year had been trying to get a date with her for two months and had resorted to stalking her. The Slytherin ended up becoming a plant and Sirius placed it right in Professor McGonagall's office. Professor McGonagall didn't notice until the spell started wearing off a week later and it talked. Sirius had almost been expelled for that if Steorra hadn't stepped in and taken the blame. Now that he thought about it, Sirius had transfigured almost every one of Steorra's past ten boyfriends into a plant or animal of some sort and Steorra had never complained other than to plead him to change them back so that he didn't get into trouble. For all he'd done in Steorra's social life, he was surprised people still dared to approach her, much less himself. Sirius knew that so many girls wanted him only because he was good looking, a pretty boy almost. He was a symbol of social status, a statue in a display case for someone to show off to all their friends. Not that he minded that much, because he got what he wanted out of it, which was sex, but it did get old after a while.

Sirius looked at the clock mounted on one wall. It was only six. He wondered what caused him to be up so early, but decided that he couldn't sleep anymore. He quickly dressed, threw some fresh quills, wrinkled homework papers and books into his bag and set off for the Great Hall. There were two more days until Christmas and the Great Hall was already decked with decorations. Wreaths and garlands of pine and holly emitted a fresh, outdoor smell. Tiny golden fairies flitted around them. Giant Christmas Trees stood at each corner of the hall, each laden with candles, glittering and shimmering ornaments, and fake snow, which looked so real though as if it had just come from the outside. The hall was empty and Sirius was feeling very small at the moment for some reason. However, food was already there. Sirius supposed that there were always a few insomniacs crazy enough to be up this early, but they weren't here yet. He sat down at his usual seat at the Gryffindor table and helped himself to some sausages and french toast. The clanking of his knife and fork echoed oddly in the empty hall, which was usually so full with the hustle and bustle of students.

There was the click of high-heeled shoes across the stone floor behind him and Sirius turned around. It was Steorra. She seemed surprised to see Sirius up so early and paused a bit but then kept on going. She took her usual seat across from him and started shoveling down food ravenously, chewing noisily, as she usually did. So this was when Star woke up. She was always here with Lily before himself, James, Remus, and Peter, as they usually only had ten minutes to gulp down some juice for breakfast. Steorra didn't talk as she usually would have, but just continued to eat. Sirius stared at her, then her quickly-emptied plate which was just as quickly refilled, the her again. It seemed that the chewing grew louder with each bite of sausages she took.

"Do you have to chew so lout?" Sirius asked in annoyance. He'd never noticed just how loud Star chewed. Maybe everything seemed louder due to the lack of the usual noise, or maybe she was doing it on purpose. It could have even been his imagination, but the words tumbled out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

Steorra looked up. She wasn't wearing her glasses. She was probably wearing those invisible muggle glasses...contats or whatever they were called. Even Sirius had only seen her without those dark framed glasses once or twice. Her eyes seemed much more bright and life-like without them. He liked it. Steorra said nothing, and if anything, grabbed a piece of toast and crunched into it extra-loudly. More people arrived for breakfast, including Lily and James, who chose to sit at the ed of the table, talking quietly, and once in a while, throwing a furtive glance in Sirius' direction.

Finally, the Great Hall was filled up enough so that the loud crunching was blocked out and Sirius felt that whatever he had to say wouldn't be overheard. He leaned forward to try to talk to Steorra.

"Hi," he started, a bit awkward, although he didn't quite know why. He'd always been relaxed and completely at east with Star. They'd always found something random or obscure, or both to talk about; whether it was the weather, the overly large piles of homework, or the dinginess of the bathrooms by the Charms room.

"What do you want?" Steorra snapped, still eating at the pace she was going at almost an hour ago.

"Nothing much, just wanted to talk to you," Sirus replied.

"About what?"

"You know...about what happened last night," Sirius gave a casual shrug.

Steorra gave him a piercing look that was so venomous and full of hate, it seemed to go through his soul, ravaging and tearing it apart. "I told you already, Sirius, I don't need your pity. You want to go out with a bimbette, go ahead."

Sirius. Star had never called him that before. It was always Siri, which sounded rather girly but Sirius didn't mind, or eye candy. "I...I really would rather go out with you than her," Sirius said after a bit of thought.

"How many times do I have to repeat myself? I don't need your pity. Save it for someone who needs it, Sirius," she stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder, "And I never have wanted to go out with you and become another trophy in your display case, and I don't think I'll start now." She left leaving Sirius alone.

Is that really what she thought she would become? A trophy on display as his girlfriends displayed him? He supposed it was true. He always chose his girlfriends for shallow reasons, they were hot, perfect, pretty... did he always do it to prove he was more of a man or something? Sirius wasn't left with his thoughts for long as a cloyingly sweet scent of some imported perfume filled his nostrils and two long, slender arms wrapped themselves around Sirius.

"Come on, Siri. Let's go somewhere...private," Marie purred and kissed him on the neck.

"Don't call me Siri, okay?"

It took Marie a while to get this but in the end, she just smiled and kissed Sirius some more, pulling him away from the Great Hall.

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Um...Reviews, anyone? Please? 


	3. Chapter 3

Er....Chapter Three's here...I'm not really sure if anyone reads my fan fic considering the fact there are like 3 million other harry potter fan fics out there. But enjoy! Hopefully...and proofreading too...there are a lot of typos, I'm sure. I try the best I can to proofread but sometimes, like right now, I just don't feel like it. Oh, and if it looks like I'm a sex addict in this chapter, I'm not...I don't think.

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Chapter Three : : Steorra

Steorra had left because she saw Marie slowly walk over in that voluptuous walk that she had, her long legs moving gracefully and her butt swaying from side to side, flaunting it to everyone behind her.

The more she stared at Marie, the more Steorra hated her. There was just something not quite right about Marie that Steorra couldn't quite place her finger on. And when Steorra Ming because mad, she would stop at nothing to achieve revenge, or at the very least, make sure the other party was seriously injured. She walked over to Lily, who was laughing herself silly at something James had just said, grabbed Lily by the arm and dragged her to the entrance hall.

"Whaaa??" Lily whined, a bit disgruntled.

"Are you ready for operation bimbette kill?" Steorra whispered into her ear, an evil glint in her eye.

"Kill?" Lily gave her a questioning look.

"Okay, not kill her literally, just her reputation as the 'hottest girl in the sixth year'," Steorra air quoted Sirius. 

"Star, you know you can get Sirius if you want him. He told me last night that he really would rather spend time with you than Marie," Lily pleaded, "and he sounded very sincere," she added as and afterthought.

"I told you, Lil, I don't want to date Sirius Black, I just want to protect him from Marie," Steorra explained, a bit frustrated that everyone thought she liked Sirius. Of course, it did seem as if she did, judging from her jealous behavior. But really, it was just to protect Sirius. Steorra had convinced herself of that this morning while chewing extra-loudly to annoy Sirius. "I mean, come on, hasn't Marie been a bitch to you more than once?"

"I suppose," LIly said tentatively, "And there is that oh-I'm-too-popular-for-you attitude that makes me want to punch her lights out..." as Lily became worked up about this, her enthusiasm convinced her to follow along with whatever Star's plan was.

They arrived in their dormitory in record time.

"What are we doing here? Class starts in fifteen minutes," Lily said, an edge of urgency in her voice. She was beginning to have doubts and wondered what made her agree to this in the first place.

Steorra was busily turning the place inside out, invading not only her own and Lilys' trunks, but also their rommates'. "It doesn't matter," she answered, "We'll make a better entrance if we're late. You have Arithmancy with James next, don't you?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, you'll make him really fall hard for you with what I'm about to do," Steorra sounded excited, not that James didn't already fall hard enough for Lily, but a little bit more won't hurt.

Finally, after much rummaging, she put together two outfits which were, to say the lease, objectionable.

"I had to do a bit of transfiguration, but it still looks nice," Steorra said proudly to Lily, throwing her a tank-top, a mesh, see-through pullover, a leather skirt, and lace up, knee length boots.

"Are you insane?" Lily exclaimed, "We can't wear these."

"Yes, we can. I looked through the school rules, we can go nude if we want as long as we have our robes over it," Steorra shoved Lily into the bathroom to change as she put on her own outfit. It was a white, off the shoulder peasant blouse very popular in muggle fashion at the time. It hugged tightly to her figure and left her midriff bare. She squeezed into the tinest skirt she'd ever seen, glad that leather was fairly flexible and that she didn't have rolls hanging out over the skirt. Stiletto heels with ties that wrapped around her calves were her choice of footwear.

Lily stepped out of the bathroom shyly, looking every bit the slut as Steorra did.

"Great, we look just like Marie, only better," Steorra smiled and tapped her wand on her head, Her hair, which usually had split ends all over the place, became perfectly strait, hanging limply around her face. She did the same to Lily's waves, who was still more than a bit awkward about herself.

"Don't worry, hon," Steorra said comfortingly, "boys will love us." She pulled on her black robes, but not buttoning it up as she usually did. When she walked, the air rushed it back, fully revealing hers and Lilys' skimpy outfits. "Beautiful," she beamed once again and walked out.

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Surprisingly, they weren't late and there wee still five minutes left before class started. And Steorra was right, stares, wolf-whistles, cat calls followed them wherever they went. After leaving an embarrassed buy happy Lily at Arithmancy, she decided to take the long way to Charms, just to test out her new look some more.

Apparently, word could spread pretty fast in Hogwarts as boys seemingly lined up along the corridors just to goggle at her. Steorra waved to some of them and they just kept on staring at her with a glazed look on their faces and a goofy smile at their mouths. So it was worth it to nearly poke her eyes out in the morning, trying to put in contacts. Steorra managed to slip into the Charms room with a minute left.

The bimbette was in Steorra's usual seat next to Remus, seemingly interested in his hair as she kept on trying to brush the stubborn strands which always covered his left eye. Steorra liked that bit of hair. It made Remus seem that much more mysterious than he already was.

Remus saw Steorra, stared a bit and gave her a pleading smile. Marie thought Remus had been staring and smiling at her, which just made her try to bush his hair back even more.

"Tsk, tsk, Marie," Steorra said patronizingly, "Don't you have a boyfriend already? What would he think if he found out that you were all over one of his best friends?"

"Well, unlike you, I can get both of--" Marie turned around to face Steorra and was met with a towering figure as Steorra had four-inch heels on. "...them."

"Come on, out, out. Class just started," Steorra snapped as Professor Flitwick came in, stumbling on his too long robes.

Marie gave her a look of pure disgust and went over to her Hufflepuff friends, looking absolutely scandalized.

"thanks," Remus smiled, shaking his head a little so the hair would fall back into place. "I see why you don't like her. She's a complete moron. Oh, Remus, I love your hair," Remus mimicked in a high voice, "I love you so much more than my Sirius. Oh Remus, please marry me."

Steorra laughed, "We're still on for the Yule Ball, right?"

Remus was taken aback by this. Obviously, he'd thought Steorra was kidding last night and that everything would have been fixed by now. But he quickly recovered, "Uh, yeah, of course. It's at eight, right?"

"Yep. Eight to twelve."

"Quiet down, please," tiny Professor Flitwick squeaked from atop his usual pedestal of books. "Today is an important lesson on charms that require only a specific wand movement, no spell needs to be said. They com in very handy in everyday house-hold chores such as a de-gnoming and doing the dishes..."

Everyone zoned out sometime between the mention of chores and Professor Flitwick toppling over at the excitement of showing them how to make their homework paper stack themselves into a neat, organized pile. After staring at the clock for what seemed like days, Charms, which was unusually boring, ended. Steorra wiped away a bit of drool that had gathered at the corner of her mouth and packed up her things.

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Lunch was an endless affair as just about every single boy from every house, ranging from tiny first-years to burly seventh-years asked Steorra and Lily out. While Lily had no problem saying "no" as she was paying most of her attention to James, Steorra had a harder time. When some people saw that Steorra didn't reject them outright, they became bolder and more and more boys came up to her. Steorra had never had this much attention paid to her in her life and thoroughly enjoyed it, especially when Marie was going mad with jealousy.

A strangely familiar voice said, "Move it, move it, people," and everyone who was crowding around Steorra parted to let an enraged Sirius through.

"Man, Sirius, I thought you didn't want this girl," a Hufflepuff sixth-year protested.

"Yeah, aren't you going out with Marie Hallicomb?" a Ravenclaw fifth-year added, sounding as if it were the most unfair thing in the world.

"Fist of all," Sirius began, "I never said I didn't want Star, and second of all, going with Marie to Yule Ball does not make her my girlfriend."

"It doesn't?" someone asked, "because Marie obviously thinks it does.

"Well, then she's mistaken," Sirius replied before roughly grabbing Steorra by the wrist and pulling her seven floors to the Gryffindor common room. IT was deserted.

"Just exactly what is your problem?" Sirius yelled, shoving Steorra on a couch and pacing back and forth, "I already told you, i value our friendship more than some slut trying to gain attention, but what you're doing isn't going to help you. Dressing like that is just like sinking as low as any of my girlfriends."

"Well, obviously, some people appreciate it more than you," Steorra said haughtily.

Sirius whirled around to face her. "No they don't. They don't appreciate you any more than before, only the image of yourself that you're putting out, which is: 'look at me, don't you just want to screw me?' "

"Maybe that's what I'm going for," Steorra said, "haven't you every thought about how I feel? How I'm always alone when you're out fucking someone? What it's like to just lay in bed and wonder whether you'd be alone for the rest of your life? Why you're not good enough for anyone?" Steorra heard the words spilling out of her mouth, but couldn't make sense of them. Did she really feel this way? She watched as Sirius' face turned into one of pity. _Of course you pity me, don't you? You wouldn't survive a week without sinning like hell._ But maybe it was a look of sympathy, Steorra couldn't tell anymore.

"Is that all you want out of your life? Sex?" Sirius leaned closer, "That should be the least of your problems because I would even screw you. And so would just about everyone else you've talked to. I don't know if you noticed this, but you're one of those people who everyone else wants to be, and yet the one person you don't want to be is yourself..." Steorra stopped paying attention. The prospect of doing it with Sirius sounded so wrong, and yet intrigued her in such a way that she wanted to do slam Sirius on the ground and actually do it. She eyed him up and down. Her certainly was easy on the eyes: bright dark eyes, shaggy hair that looked like it hadn't been cut in six months (which, as Steorra reminded herself, was probably true), a nicely proportioned face, toned and lean musculature...the list could go on and on.

When Sirius stopped talking, Steorra started, "Fine. But just so you know, if you wanted to screw me, you should've done it a while ago. I'll wear what I want to, prioritize the way I want to, and you can't tell me what to do." She stalked off toward the portrait hole, but paused and turned back, "But this shirt and these shoes are cutting off my circulation." And she went up to her dormitory to change.


	4. Chapter 4

Well, here it is, the amazing chapter 4 of my story which now has a title. This chapter is pretty much fluff, so feel free to skip it unless you have some obsession with Remus Lupin, in which case go ahead and read it. Otherwise, you can just read the ending, which is kind of an important turning point in the story (well, according to my plan for the story anyway). So read and review ppl, read and review! Cuz god knows I need the grammar and spelling help...

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Chapter Four : : Remus

After Sirius' rant in the Gryffindor common room, Steorra and Lily toned down a little. While Lily was back to her old self ("Just the way he liked," said a dejected James), Steorra only gave up on the stiletto heels. If anything, her dress was even more provocative. The teachers had grown alarmed, afraid that the trend will continue and the pursuit of fashion will have a higher priority among the student body than the pursuit of education. Of course, the didn't realize that this was already true. 

On the day of the Yule Ball, everyone seemed more restless than usual. This was saying a lot for Remus' History of Magic class as everyone was usually asleep by the time Professor Binns floated through the chalkboard. Today, however, Remus could hear the girls behind him excitedly whispering about their dress robes, the people to the left of him imagining the food, and the wanna-be psychics in front of him giggling about how Venus shone upon them, guaranteeing them romance that night. Sirius, on the other hand, who was usually the one to lead these conversations, was sprawled across the table, taking up most of it, his eyes barely open and looking extremely bored.

"Why aren't you all pumped up for the Yule Ball like everyone else?" Remus asked.

"What's there to be excited about?" Sirius mumbled, lifting his head up a little, "It's all fakeness and a contest of who's more popular than whom when they're all really attention-deprived and very pathetic morons like me."

"Well, I'd gladly swap dates with you," Remus quickly added upon seeing the color rise up in Sirius' cheeks, "Not that there's anything wrong with Star." Sirius seemed as if he would be a lot happier if he were attending the Yule Ball with star instead of Marie, which Remus couldn't quite figure out why. Sirius lived for girls like Marie, one hundred percent fake, but now he was turning to Star? One of their best friends who ate too much and yet as the result of some medical miracle, never gained weight? The loud-mouthed girl who was the crucible of their wild and crazy lives? Remus loved her, and so did everyone else in their weird "clique". She really was a star in their lives, like a guardian of sorts, ever-present to watch over them. As Remus left his train of through, he noticed that Sirius was once again sprawled across the table, his arms in a spread-eagle position, soundly asleep.

The class finally ended after a long ninety minutes of nothingness and everyone literally stormed the exit. This was the last class and they had three hours before the Yule Ball began.

Remus dragged Sirius, who started wandering in the direction of the Gryffindor common room to the Great Hall.

"I wanna sleep," Sirius groaned and tried to go back.

"No. You're going to sit down and have a nice and very long chat with Star, specifically mentioning what an ass you've been and other degrading comments about yourself and beg her to go to Yule Ball with you," Remus said firmly and continued dragging Sirius towards the Gryffindor table.

"Hey, let go of me," Sirius struggled, but to no avail, "Or I'm gonna make you look like Mrs. Cutthrell." According to Sirius, Mrs.. Cutthrell was an old family friend who was evil beyond anything and lived to torture Sirius and making snide comments to him. In fact, she'd been so horrible, Sirius had wanted her dead. And whaddya know, she turned up dead on day, her body mutilated by some unknown force not magic or muggle. Her skin had been peeled back, layer by layer, then her flesh and her organs had been diced to tiny pieces. It was a horrible sight for a ten-year-old boy to see, as it had been Sirius who found the old lady, dead and hanging by a noose made of thin wire in front of his window.

"So you're not gonna do it?" Remus asked as he straightened out his shirt.

"No. She said that she didn't want my pity, and I'm not gonna give it to her," Sirius said, a bit loudly, and turned to leave.

"Is it pity that you feel for her, though? Or is it something else?" Remus asked.

Sirius gave him a funny look, one of ambivalence and was about to leave when Marie glided over. 

"Hi, Siri, how are you today?" She asked, her voice sickeningly sweet.

"Go away," Sirius snapped, brushing her off.

"But Siri..." Marie whined.

"Ugh, I said, go away!" Sirius shouted and left, leaving Marie looking quizzical....the look didn't last for long, however, as her empty brain soon forgot the incident. 

Remus went to Gryffindor tower. "Stardust," he said and the portrait of the fat lady swung open. Remus climbed in. He went up the spiraling tower stairs to his four-poster. The boy's dormitories were actually individual rooms. Each had a curtain hanging over the door. The rooms were built along the tower, spiraling up with the tower. Remus' was the thrid one up.

There were nearly two hours before the Yule Ball and Remus fell upon his bed and slept. It was a fitful sleep, and he dreamt. He dreamt of horrible events. He dreamt of killing, of bloodshed, of terror. That was all he ever dreamt of anyway. at first, he'd thought it was because he was a werewolf, and that he was evil. Evil people did not deserve to have peace and quiet, even when they slept. They only had evil thoughts, resulting in evil dreams. Evil was his comfort and guide. But Sirius and James weaned him away from that disposition. He accepted that his dreams were just a part of his life. They were only dreams, and meant nothing more then confused thoughts.

The dream seemed so vivid, so real though. His vision seemed to be stained red with the taint of blood. There was goodness too. Good had caused the bloodshed. Remus awoke from the dream rather groggily. How had he been able to sense these things? How was he able to sense these things? What did he know was good or evil?

It was ten to seven and a flushed James rushed into Remus' room. He was out of breath as if he'd just run a long way. "You can't...Yule Ball...moon...full..." he gasped for air.

Remus furrowed his brow, and quickly strode to the calendar pinned to his bedpost with the phases of the moon clearly marked. It was a full moon. How could he have forgotten that?

"Well, listen. I want you to go to the Yule Ball tonight. I'll be fine by myself," Remus said.

"No, we're not going to abandon you for our own pleasure," James said, "And besides, you wouldn't be the only one being yelled at by an angry date tomorrow. We'll all get mouthfuls. So if we're gonna get in trouble, there's nothing wrong with getting in trouble together."

This was James' attitude towards life in general: act now, think later, and if you get caught in a lie, deny, deny, deny. This wasn't that bad of a philosophy for kids, but as they grew older, and matured somewhat, it just seemed wrong.

James wouldn't listen to any further protests from Remus and hurried to send him to Madam Pomfrey's so he could go down to the Whomping Willow. The Animagi would follow later.

While girls dreaded their periods every month, Remus dreaded the full moon. He had thought of countless ideas to somehow destroy the moon in his youth-- muggle spaceships, broomsticks, engorgement charms that would make him big enough to reach the moon...He still thought of them sometimes. They brought back the happiness, the joy, the idyllic life he had as a child, before the reality set in, a reality in which he didn't want to live.

They had arrived tat the Whomping Willow. Madam Pomfrey froze the tree and ushered Remus in, giving him her usual firm look, "Go on in now," she said.

Remus could already feel the tingling in his limbs which would soon grow into a gnawing pain. He rushed in, not daring to look back for fear that he'd attack the school nurse. The gnawing pain grew more persistent and spread throughout his entire body. He felt hair sprouting, each strand brought pain beyond pain. His nose became elongated and turned into a snout. His limbs grew longer and stronger. An insane hate for humans filled his mind, for shunning him, for spurning him, for disparaging him, and Remus knew it wasn't right. There were no humans around to hurt and the hate intensified as Remus began to pound on the boarded-up windows, but to no avail. They were held strongly in place with magic. He smashed the furniture and stomped the floor, even ripping out his fur and clawing at his body, anything to vent his feelings. There was an odd scuffle behind him and teh three animals arrived; an enormous black hound, a powerful-looking stag, and a tiny gray rat. Remus felt the hate abating a little. These animals, they were his friends, he knew and loved them. He hound leapt onto Remus and playfully licked his face. Remus felt his hate abate more. He was no werewolf, no evil-doer, he was...himself...Remus Lupin.

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Remus transformed back to a human in the early hours of morning, after the moon had set. He and the rest, hidden under James' invisibility cloak, quietly snuck back into the castle. No one seemed tired at all, not after running around the Forbidden Forest and doing things no one else in the school probably could even imagine of doing. That rush of adrenaline and euphoria was what Remus looked forward to every month. As they excitedly whispered their ideas fro next month's escapade, there was a long, piercing scream from the direction of Gryffindor tower. 

They quickly rounded the corner. What met Remus' eyes turned his stomach. The Christmas eve partying at Gryffindor seemed to just have ended. Steorra was on her knees in front of the portrait hole, something red splattered all over her. Blood. above her, hung by a thin, wiry noose attached to a torch bracket, was a figure distorted beyond recognition.

"Mrs. Cutthrell," Sirius gasped and rushed forward. Blood from the mutilated body trickled in tiny streams down the broken and peeled-back flesh. The scalp had been stripped from the skull, and the face was sliced up. Steorra was under it, the blood dripping down her face, matted on her hair, and gathering in a small pool on the ground.

"Marie...Marie...she's dead..." Steorra mumbled to herself, not noticing the small crowd of people gathering around her, "I killed her."

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Ooohh...didn't that leave you hanging on a ledge? No? Oh well....*mumbles*

reviews anyone? *looks around hopefully*

Oh, and I drew some purty Sirius fan art...OK, like two. Take a look if you like- ; You gotta scroll the the bottom...it's the middle one in the second to last row...I think.


	5. Chapter 5

Well...Glad ppl liked Chapter Four, I needed to get out my anger at some stupid evil dumb blondes I kno (no offense to other blondes out there), so I killed the bitchy person...here's chapter five. I can't believe I'm actually writing so much in this story. I haven't gotten this far in a story (w/ an actual semblance of a plot) since 7th grade. Wow...yay!! And the fan art link I put on to last chapter didn't seem to work, cuz I guess FFnet doesn't allow it. If you really wanna see it, go to my profile by clicking on my name and click on the link there. Once you get to the site, click on the number three, which is the fan section and go to fan art. Scroll to the bottom and it's the middle on in the second to last row. Wow...I'm out of breath, that must be the most long-winded and specific directions I've ever given in my life...'cept for the time with that lady and the streets...yeah...*shifty eyes*

Anyway, so read and review ppl, read and review!

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Chapter Five : : Sirius

"What do you mean? You killed Marie?" Sirius sand down beside Steorra, "You can't have."

Steorra looked up at Sirius. Blood had gathered at the corners of her eyes, and had started streaming down her face, making it look as if she had blood tears. "I hated her so much, and I killed her," Steorra gave a dry sob, "I didn't even know why I hated her so much...and yet i still killed her."

"You didn't kill her," Sirius said in what he thought was a reassuring tone, "I mean...you can't have. No student could have done this..." Sirius flinched as a drop of blood landed on his nose.

"But my hands, look at my hands," Steorra held out her hands to Sirius, "they're bloody, stained with her blood."

"Star, get a hold of yourself," James said, "they're bloody because you've been under that body for god knows how long and the blood's getting all over you."

"Yes. James is right, you know," Lily said and tried to drag Steorra away from the body. She wouldn't budge.

All of Gryffindor House was out here now, and buzzed with confusion. "Had Steorra really done it?" "She seems like a murderer..." "No she doesn't..." "Always thought there was something fishy about her..."

someone had called the teachers, and Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore forced a path through the crowd.

Professor McGonagall gasped, "What is this, Dumbledore? What happened? Who could have done this?"

Professor Dumbledore inspected it silently for a moment, poked and prodded at the corpse with his want and his bow knotted in question as if expecting something to happen, but it didn't. At last, he spoke. At last, he spoke.

"Go back to bed, and do not speak of this to anyone. Sirius, come with me."

The Gryffindors climbed back into the tower, and it now seemed as if no one would be asleep tonight. The bizarre murder would be topic of conversation for perhaps years to come. Lily, James, Remus, and Peter had to combine their strength to budge Steorra from place, and literally drag her back to the common room. Sirius was left alone in the corridor with Professor Dumbledore.

"Follow me," Dumbledore said and led Sirius down to the first floor. They passed the Great Hall and rounded a corner. There stood an extremely ugly gargoyle statue, leering suspiciously at them.

"Jellybeans," Professor Dumbledore said. The gargoyle sprang to one side and the wall behind it split into two halves, revealing a spiraling staircase, reminding Sirius of those moving stairs in muggle shops, estavators or something. Sirius and Dumbledore stepped onto it and the the walls slid back into place as they were moved upward.

They arrived in a large room laden with countless interesting objects on the shelves that surrounded the room. An old, ornate desk sat in the middle and atop a perch next to the desk, was a phoenix. Sirius stared at it. He'd never seen a phoenix before and it seemed to be the most beautiful creature that ever lived. Its feathers were bright orange and looked so soft. Its long tail swept magnificently to the ground. The phoenix emitted an aura that seemed to say "untouchable."

"I see you like Fawkes," Dumbledore said quietly behind him. Sirius nearly jumped as he had forgotten that Dumbledore was there. "Sit down," Dumbledore motioned to the leather armchair before his desk.

Sirius took the seat and looked at Dumbledore, who seemed to be wording what he was going to say.

"Sirius," he began, "Did Miss Ming say anything about the murder?"

"Well, yeah. She said that she did it, but it can't be her because I've seen someone murdered the same way and Star was only ten back then," Sirius answered.

Dumbledor seemed startled by this revelation, "You mean...you've seen someone's body cut up like Miss Hallicomb's?"

Sirius nodded.

"Who was it?"

"Mrs. Cutthrell, she was a family friend," Sirius said.

Dubledore took a while to comprehend this, "And how did you feel towards her?"

"Hatred and enmity," Sirius was surprised he answered so cleanly and without thinking.

"And Miss Hallicomb?"

Sirius thought for a while. How exactly did he feel for Marie? There was definitely the physical attraction, but mentally? Sirius wasn't quite sure. She was annoying at times. She didn't know when to shut up. She was horrible to pretty much everyone. She was a snob in general. Then, it clicked. Sirius felt the same way about Marie just as he felt for Mrs. Cutthrell, perhaps even more so.

Dumbledore seemed to register the stricken look on Sirius face and said, "No, I highly doubt that you are the murderer of either one of those two. I don't think it was performed by any magic, for no spell, curse, hex, charm, or jinx has been invented yet to commit such a deed."

Sirius relaxed somewhat. But the seeds of doubt had been planted in his mind, and already, he could imagine the newspaper headlines: Sirius Black-- Hogwarts student turned grisly murderer.

"Go back to Gryffindor Tower, Sirius," Dumbledore said, "And you would be well advised to not dwell on this matter fro too long."

Sirius nodded dumbly and stepped onto the staircase, which immediately began to spiral downward. He came out from behind the gargoyle and walked, rather worn out to his dormitory.

It was quite a strange thing about teenagers, that they do what authority figures tell them not to do. Such was the case with Sirius, as he paced about the common room when then first rays of Christmas Day shone into the tower. Yet Sirius still thought about the murders and their possible connections as people milled around him in a mad rush to pack away Christmas presents as they made ready to leave on the Hogwarts Express for the winter holidays. By nine that morning, just about everyone was gone, and yet, Sirius still kept on pacing.

"you're going to dig yourself into a trench if you don't stop pacing." Sirius turned around and looked blankly. It was James. "Anyway, Merry Christmas to you too."

"Why aren't you going home for the holidays?" Sirius asked, sitting down on a couch, not realizing just how sore his legs were from nearly five hours of pacing.

"We're going to Aunt Mildred's. He's absolutely too mushy for me to handle. 'Ooh! Jimmy! You've grown so much! You're just too irresistible! Mwa, mwa!'" James mimicked in a squeaky voice, "Besides, Lily's staying." Though James added it as if it were an afterthought, Sirius knew that it was the main reason James stayed.

"Is she still talking to you after you ditched her last night?" Sirius asked in humor.

"Well...probably not. But she's got her hands full with Star, so I'm hoping that she'll forget," James replied.

"What happened to Star?" Sirius suddenly remembered how Star tied in with the whole situation.

"Um...after we dragged her back last night, she tried to kill herself," James left a dramatic pause so Sirius could wider his eyes in disbelief, "And what's more, we all had to take turns watching her, because the minute she's left alone, she'll get a knife and slash herself."

"Why don't you take the knife away?" Sirius said, stating the obvious.

"Oh, believe me, we did. But then she tried to curse herself into oblivion, even tried _avada kadavera_. Thank god she wasn't strong enough. But I tell ya, she's pretty damn strong. Even if she didn't manage to kill herself, she did manage to knock herself unconscious for a couple of hours," James said.

This was disturbing. Steorra and suicide just didn't match. She'd even said so before that she had too much to do before she died. The fact that he himself may be a murderer was already scary enough by itself, though he had already firmly convinced himself that he was romping on the grounds with Lupin all night and they were nowhere near Gryffindor Tower. But Star? Commit a murder? Even though she fully supported violence as a means of retaliation, she knew where to draw the line, and murder was definitely beyond the line. How could a girl who had mourned the execution of a serial killer and rapist be guilty of homicide? She didn't even believe in it when it was part of the legal system.

"Well, where is star now?' Sirius asked.

"In her dorm," James answered. As Sirius made for the staircase leading to the girl's dormitory, James added, "Oh, and i wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Do what?" Sirius gave him a questioning look.

James shook his head, "Never mind."

Sirius shrugged and took to the steps two at a time. However, before he got to the sixth step, the stairs smoothed out and Sirius toppled over and slid down to the ground.

"You knew about this, didn't you?" Sirius growled.

James was head over heels laughing. "Ahh...you should've seen how magnificently you slid down the stairs." He sobered up a bit after a while, but was still clutching to his side, laughing, as Sirius approached him with a raging look, "Well, I did try to warn you."

The door to the girl's dormitory opened and closed. Out came Lily, leading a pale and sickly looking Steorra down the twisting stairs. Sirius looked at her. the blood had been washed away from the night before. She was in muggle clothes: a black tank- top and jeans. There were ghastly gashes on her arms, all carefully bandaged by Lily's expert hands. They were extremely thick around Steorra's wrist. There was an awful lot of bruising too. Apparently, Steorra had tried to run into things too. Sirius would hate to see the state of the rest of Steorra's body was in.

"Stop staring at me like you're stricken or something," Steorra said in a hoarse voice, "I'll be fine."

"Shouldn't you go and see Madam Pomfrey?" Sirius asked. She certainly seemed to be back to normal. But there was just something that had changed in her, as if she had become a bit sadder, and yet a bit more aggressive.

"No," Steorra replied, "I don't want to be locked up in the infirmary on Christmas Day. I've still got presents to open...and I notice that I haven't gotten one from you yet, Siri."

"So is anyone else hungry, because I sure am," Sirius abruptly changed the subject, "And I smell bacon." He quickly rushed to the portrait hole before Steorra had the time to grab him.

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Yes, I know I went through everything a bit quick, but we don't need pointless bits of fluff and a full psycho-analysis of every character. Character development, who needs it! Psh...

Yeah, anyway, stupid AOL network was apparently busy last night and kicked my out (the indignity of it all!) and I spent like 30 min. fuddling around with the numerous cables that connects the DSL thingie to my computer before figuring out that the network was busy.


	6. Chapter 6

Yes, yes, I know chapter five was stupid and uneventful, but this chapter will be different, I swear. Well...toward the end anyway. The beginning is just small talk about Quidditch. I just plain like Quidditch because it sounds like lacrosse...OK...no...not at all...I just like lacrosse...and Quiddtich... But anyway, I suggest you read it because it's gonna be important later on in the story. Blah, blah, blah, and I'm proud cuz I finally wrote a chapter from James' POV. If you haven't noticed yet, this story switches between different ppl's points of view...which I thought would be interesting, but that's just me. So read and review people, read and review!

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Chapter Six : : James

The new term rolled around and the murder of Marie Hallicomb was spreading through school like wildfire. Rumors of ancient curses placed upon the castle, ill omens of darkness, and Steorra Ming's integrity flew around. but this was the lease of James' worries as Quidditch season rolled around.

It was Monday and James had to be slapped awake by Sirius after a lazy weekend.

"Wake up! Or we'll miss breakfast altogether today!" Sirius said as he rushed to dress.

"Let's just skip class today," James moaned, sitting up a little, "I mean all we'll probably get are detentions. Besides, I think it's about time they made Monday part of the weekend, and --"

"And Tuesday, Wednesday, and the rest of the week," Sirius finished the sentence for James. "Yeah, yeah." He threw a wadded-up robe at James, "Just shut up and get dressed."

when they arrived at the great Hall though, the food was already gone from the tables. Yet everyone sat unnervingly still as Dumbledore stood up, apparently ready to say something. Sirius and James' footsteps echoed loudly as they hurried toward the Gryffindor table. They slouched a bit more than usual, as if trying to remain small and avoid being seen. This, of course, didn't work, as hundreds pairs of eyes turned toward them. they sat down and smiled nervously.

They eyes soon turned back to Dumbledore as he started to speak.

"I have two announcements to make," he began, "First, I am reminded by our caretaker, Mr. Kedemoth, that magic should not be used in the corridors. So whoever charmed the bricks on the fourth floor to speak, please refrain from doing so in the future." Sirius and James looked at each other and then around the Great Hall, staring accusingly at everyone who looked smart enough to pull off such a task, all the while carrying perfectly angelic and innocent expressions.

Dumbledore continued, "Second of all, I am please to announce that the Quidditch tournaments will take a different form this yea." The Great Hall began to buzz with curiosity. "We will have seven games between pairs of house teams. Whoever wins four games out of seven will advance to the next round. In the end, the Quidditch Cup winner will be about to go to Durmstrang and compete with their champion for the title of 'Grand Champion.'"

The Great hall burst into excitement as Dumbledore sat down.

"Durmstrang? Isn't that up north somewhere?" Lily asked, and shuddered as she hated the cold.

"Yeah, uh-huh. I hope they can't fly too well...I'm not sure if I would want to be up against them," Sirius said.

"Why?" Lily gave him a quizzical look.

"Have you seen their pictures?" James answered, "They are all like over six feet tall and three hundred pounds."

"So? You're over six feet tall," Lily said.

"Yeah, but I'm not three hundred pounds," James said.

"And I'm not either one of those," Steorra cut in.

"Hey, we can always hope that they'll weigh down their brooms so much that they won't be fast enough to chase you anywhere," James said. He desperately hoped that this was true. The Chasers on the team were very prone to injuries for some reason. If Steorra wasn't strong enough to fly her best, he wasn't sure if the other two chasers would be able to stay injury-free until the end of the tournament.

"You can talk. All you have to do is fly around and look for a Snitch instead of being clubbed by Beaters all the time. Anyway, let's worry about actually winning the Hogwarts championship, and then deal with Durmstrang." Steorra said. 

"Oh, I don't know about this," Lily said worriedly, "I heard that Durmstrang school was full of dark arts. What if they curse you guys in mid-air?"

Sirius snorted and choked on the glass of milk he was drinking. "give it a break, Lil! James is probably the best there is at Defense Against the Dark Arts, and star ain't half bad either. Besides, I'm sure we'll find a way to watch the tournament and we can always jinx anyone we think is going to attack our team in advance." Sirius gave a dark smile and lovingly caressed his wand.

"Shut up, Siri and chase after some girls or something," Steorra said irritably, "Can't you see that you're scaring Lil?"

"Whatever you say," Sirius stood up and smoothed out his hair as a group of Ravenclaws caught his eye.

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James watched intently as Steorra moved around little teapots in mid-air during Transfiguration to simulate a game plan for their upcoming Quidditch matches. Lily, always their strategist, thought of variations on many plans so that they were unpredictable. In fact, that was probably the only reason Gryffindor had the best Quidditch team in the school, because of Lily. Every plan the team thought of had probably already been in play for years. It was all up to Lily to figure out how to manipulate them so that they became something completely different.

This is what James loved about Lily. Her mind had not been dulled by the mindless people who populated the school. She was good at making conversation, able to think of topics that didn't relate to the latest gossip. Lily. James like the sound of that name too. they were his favorite flowers, or at least would be if he had a favorite flower. She was beautiful too...James' eyes glazed over as he imagined a future for him and Lily...there were children...lots of them, miniature replicas of themselves...that the were all holding hands...and smiling...A goofy smile spread over James' face.

"Gaahh!!" There was a frustrated shriek, the sound of glass and porcelain breaking and a loud "Ow!" James was once again back in reality. He looked over. Sirius was clutching his head and moaning in pain (a bit faking it) as Steorra tried to pry his hands away so she could see what had happened to him. Apparently, Sirius had done something to cause Steorra fling all her little teacups, plates, and saucers Quidditch model at him.

"Stop moving, you big baby!" Steorra snapped and kicked Sirius in the shins.

"Ow! You're just hurting me more!" Sirius' hands went to his legs.

James flinched. It wasn't a pretty sight. Sirius' hands were stained red as the blood gushed out from a deep gash above his left eye. Steorra stared at him, her expression blank all of a sudden. she seemed to be struggling with something inside her. Her hands twitched slightly. On of her arms suddenly flew up as it began to claw at her scabs on her arms, which broke open as a black liquid flowed out.

"NO! Stop it!" Steorra screamed, collapsing to the floor, "I'm still here! I'M STILL HERE!!"

"Star!" Lily rushed forward, "Star!" she grabbed Steorra's flailing arms, but was repelled by an invisible shield of some sort.

"Go get McGonagall!" someone shouted.

There was a rush of footsteps toward the door as just about the whole class ran out.

James found that he couldn't move, held paralyzed by some unknown force. His body wasn't obeying the commands that his brain screamed. All he could do was watch in fear and awe as the scene before him played out.

Lily was struggling to get up, clutching to an oddly bent arm and squinting, her face all scrunched up as if a gale was blowing Steorra was still screaming incomprehensible gibberish. The blood gushing out of her open flesh wounds were intermittently changing colors between red and black, like a flickering television set. Sirius sat on his chair, wide-eyed and afraid. Steorra seemed to be reaching for him and trying to pull away at the same time. Some sort of glowing force field surrounded her, shimmering like on of those bubbles children blew from the plastic hoops.

James tried to blink, as if there were some sort of nightmare, but he couldn't move his eyelids either. His eyes were starting to burn and water. _This is a dream, it just has to be a dream, _he thought. _It's...it's impossible. This isn't real...not at all..._

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"James...James..." a sweet, melodious voice, echoing oddly rang in his head. A gentle and warm hand brushed against his face, "James, hon! Wake up!"

James' eyes snapped open. Above him, was the angelic face of Lily Evans, her bright red hair cascading down her shoulders and her luminous green eyes staring devotedly at him. Only she wasn't Lily...she was different...she was...older.

"Lil? What happened?" he muttered.

"You fell asleep on the couch, that's what happened," Lily smiled affectionately at him, "Come on, get up, or you'll be late for word."

"Word? But we're still in school," James said.

Lily's smile disappeared as she pursed her lips. "Now, now, James, you know you're not suppose to bring that up again." 

"Bring what up?"

"Your story that you imagined. Just remember that there isn't a Hogwarts, or magic, and you're not a wizard," Lily pleaded, "Please, James. It's tearing me apart to see your mind ravaged like this.

"What do you mean? No Hogwarts? No magic? We go there," James struggled up and reached for his wand in his robe pocket; except that he didn't have any robes on. He was in a wrinkled dress shirt and equally wrinkled and rather uncomfortable dress pants.

"Where's my wand?" James asked, looking around.

Lily let out a sob and collapsed on the armchair to the left. "Oh James. You said you wouldn't bring up that story again! I've been worried sick and I was so happy when you were cured! I don't want to send you back to that asylum again!" she wailed.

"What? An asylum?"

Lily looked determined as she stood up and walked to a muggle talking box, "But I will send you back if I have to. I'm going to call Dr. Yuki now." She picked up the phone and dialed.

James wanted to run over and knock the receiver out of her hands. But once again, his limbs were frozen by some outside force. What was happening? How could there not be magic in himself? Was he a mere insane muggle dreaming up the magical world? No, it couldn't be. No one can just make up such a complicated world off the top of their head.

Lily said something on the talking box which James couldn't understand, and then looked tearfully at him. How could this be Lily? The Lily he knew, loved, and respected. she was usually so strong and unbreakable, and now she was having a nervous breakdown. James laughed, a hollow and empty laugh. Doubt grew in his mind. Maybe this was what the future had in store. They would be married and live in a rather run-down flat. One of them would be schizophrenic and the other constantly on the verge of breaking. Maybe he did imagine magic and basically his whole life. The doubt grew stronger and stronger. He was just a pathetic muggle going through a mid-life crisis. There was no magic.

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Wow, that took me like a week to type because I keep on starting to type and like 5 minutes later, I have to go. But yeah, wasn't that such an exciting ride? Er...yeah...kinda? Sorta? No? Oh well...there's always the next chapter...what has been written for weeks now...I'm trying to add a subplot...but I can't think of any...and I've got writer's block...totally stuck in Chapter eight...

And my stupid FrontPage is all weird and stupid...it's all white and stuff...ugh...glaringly bright...


	7. Chapter 7

Yay! This is the chapter after the...cliffhanger thing. If you're wondering what happened to James, this chapter won't explain anything at all, and if anything, will just make the mystery seem a lot more deeper...anyway, I just read over some of my story, and I didn't realized how non-descript in all was. I just basically breeze through everything w/o too much explanation...oy...gotta start improving writing skills. But I guess that's OK because you'll just get to the climax and whatnot a lot sooner cuz I really hate overly descriptive passages...

Hmmm...I wonder if anyone actually reads this. Oh well, it's fun to write it anyway.

So read and review people, read and review!

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Chapter Seven : : Lily

Lily gasped from the pain in her left arm. It was bent grotesquely between her wrist and elbow. To her left, James had frozen for some reason. Star was on her knees before Sirius, clutching to her head and screaming for something or someone to "get out!" Sirius was shaking her by the shoulders. Lily could see his mouth moving but couldn't hear anything at all. It was as if it had been drowned out, but all was silent save for Star's screams.

Professor McGonagall burst in, out of breath. Her eyes widened. At that moment, streaks of bright, white light shot out of Steorra's body, as if it was piercing through it. The light grew brighter and engulfed Sirius and Steorra. The light expanded and the castle shook. Cracks appeared on the walls and floor. Lily rolled away in time to avoid its expanding circumference and she watched in horror as James, a dreamy look on his face, was engulfed.

"Quickly, Evans! Out!" Professor McGonagall shouted and grabbed Lily just before the room collapsed with a deafening boom. The floor caved in and everything fell to the room under it, which thankfully, was empty. Just about the whole school was running to Transfiguration now. A crowd formed, all trying to get a good look at what used to be the Transfiguration room, now just a hole.

"James! Star! Sirius!" Lily shouted, trying to jump after them.

"What do you think you're doing, Evans?" Professor McGonagall pulled her back, "You're not going to help them any by leaping to your death!"

Lily gave McGonagall a defiant look, wrenched herself from the professor's firm grasp, and ran towards the stairs. Two more people followed, Remus and Peter.

Lily arrived at the room on the floor below. The walls in that room had crumbled but the floor still held steady. An enormous pile of stone and broken rocks were on the floor.

"James! Star!" She started trying to remove the rocks, which were too big.

"Stand back," Remus stepped up and was about to blow the rubble into dust.

"Oh, no, don't do that. What if you accidentally blow them apart too?" Lily took out her won wand and held it in front of her, racking her mind for a spell.

"_Wingardium Leviosa_," Peter said and a slab of stone flew up and hovered in mid-air, almost hitting the people peering down through the hole in the ceiling. Lily blasted it into dust. This process was done over and over until the air was choked with dust and the mountain of rubble had become a large pile. On top of it, were the still forms of James, Sirius, and Steorra.

"Oh my gosh, please don't be dead, please don't be dead..." Lily mumbled to herself as she ran up to James. He was so very still. Lily couldn't see any signs of breathing. "James? James?"

Professor Dumbledore, followed by Madam Pomfrey came in.

"Oh, these poor children," Madam Pomfrey rushed forth and pried Lily off of James. She listened to his chest, then flet for a pulse in his wrist, and her brow furrowed into a confused look. "Hmmm, that's strange."

"What? What is it?" Lily asked.

"He has no respiration, but he does have a very strong heartbeat," Madam Pomfrey answered and leaned down again to listen to James' chest.

"So is he...is he alive?" Lily asked tentatively.

"I guess hi is. We'll take him up to the infirmary and see what happens," Madam Pomfrey shook her head and muttered, "Never seen anything like that in my life..."

Lily gave James another look before turning her attention to Steorra and Sirius. Lily was surprised to see Star on top of Sirius, as if trying to protect him. _I guess you still like him,_ Lily thought. even though things had seemed to be back to normal between their friendship, Lily knew that they'd never be the same. Steorra seemed much more torn than before about Sirius. One side of her said: push him away while another side said: bring him closer. Lily knew so because she'd found a list of pros and cons under Steorra's bed on being friends with Sirius. The pros list was a lot longer than the cons list, which had "not allowed to" scrawled across it, and Steorra had apparently wadded it up in frustration. Lily had received so much help and advice from Steorra over the years. She made a promise to herself then, that she'd help Star sort through this mess...if they came out of it alive.

**A/N: Yeah, start reading here ppl, cuz this is where I left off...yeah...the story just gets weird her. But just read and review, ppl, read and review, and no one will get hurt.**

There was a groan from under Steorra as Sirius moved a bit. Remus flipped Steorra over so that Sirius could get out. He stood up, a little woozy, and looked blearily his surroundings, as if not quite sure of anything. Lily gaped. He was perfect. Everything from his long hair to his robes were perfect, clean, and free of the layer of dust that covered everyone else. What's more, he didn't have a single scratch on him. Even the gash that had been cause by Steorra's Quidditch model had completely healed over, without a trace of a scar.

It seemed that everyone else had noticed too. Madam Pomfrey was staring at him with the same expression as the one she wore when she examined James, and if possible, it was even more stunned. She recovered and started examining him from head to toe.

"Well, you seem fine, but we'll probably have to keep you a night in the hospital wing," she said.

Lily calmed down somewhat, seeing that two of her friends where somewhere around fine, despite the fact that they were both in very bizarre states indeed. However, her heartbeat quickened as a scream welled up in her throat when her eyes settled on Steorra.

She seemed to be in the worst shape of anyone. The bandages still left on her body had all been soaked red, and there was a large gash above her left eye. Add to that about a million new cutes and scrapes, that would just about sum up Steorra's condition.

Lily bent over her, "Star," she whispered, "Star." There was no response.

"Idiot," Lily muttered as she rested Star's head on her lap, "What'd you go and blast apart the room for?" Lily felt the tears welling up in her eyes, and the warm, salty liquid run down her face. She looked around. Sirius knelt down in front of her, numb with shock and trying to spit clean blood from Steorra's face (which didn't work). Peter and Remus leaned back against a corner, tired from moving and blasting the rubble. Their faces were empty and slack. Professor Dumbledore stood over James, an expression between fear and interest on his face. Madam Pomfrey had clapped her hands over her mouth, aghast at the sight of Steorra. Faces still peered through from the hole in the ceiling, each seemingly grievous and afraid. Lily felt something warm trickle down her hand. She lifted them. Blood. She flipped Steorra on her stomach and hear a loud, resonant thump beside her. Madam Pomfrey had fainted.

On Steorra's back, the robes had been viciously ripped apart, and there were two holes at each shoulder blade, where the flesh had been torn and the which bone showed. Blood flowed freely from it, staining everything a violent shade of red.

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Oy, you have no idea how long that took me to type...OK, yeah, I just get lazy sometimes. I never realized how many words I don't conjugate in the process of writing, good thing I write it out all by hand first. Yeah, sorry this chapter was so short, but my writer's block started somewhere around here. And ugh, chapter eight sucks. But at least the story moves along and you find out lotsa surprising stuff...well...one surprising bit, but whatever, it's the main focus of the story. Yeah, so basically I plan to divide this story into two parts. The first part will end after the next chapter or two, in which case we will get to a more...exciting (I hope) part in the story...all about Quidditch and whatnot. Yeah...I wonder how many times this plot's been used...


	8. Chapter 8

Um...yeah, I was very excited about this chapter because I've been waiting forever to explain all of this wonderful stuff I thought up. Stupid TNT, killing off Charmed for two whole entire days just so they could show some stupid golf tournament. Seriously, who gives a crap about the British Open...who even plays golf anymore? Ugh... 

Yeah, so read and review ppl, read and review (and add some comments about how stupid golf is)

Oh, and I was ground for two weeks, hence the fact that this is up so late...and um...my parents have made me go to bed at like 10:30 now and since I did most of my writing between 10:00 and 12:00 before (which is why I made such fast progress before, cuz I was tired and confused)...the pace is gonna slow down...a lot...maybe...and school starts in 2 weeks...but nothing happens 'til like 3 weeks into school...I'm sure I'll get to at least chapter ten them...hopefully. Yeah, on with the story now. 

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Chapter Eight :: James 

James wandered aimlessly through the streets, his hands in his pockets, his feet taking tiny, shuffling steps. Night came quickly and the neon signs of the bustling city came alive. They flashed and changed colors and a million other things that usually would've fascinated James. But not today, and maybe not ever. 

If this was reality, how was he suppose to live in it. How was he suppose to live in a world where he didn't know how to do anything? Where he didn't really like anything? How could he have imagined half of his life? A car whizzed by, swerving just in time so that it didn't hit him. The driver shouted some profanities, which were drowned out in the noise of the city. James laughed ruefully. Maybe he's imagining that he's imagining thing. As he kept on walking, the city scene passed and he came upon the suburbs. A sweet, cloying scent filled his nostrils. James looked up. he was standing in front of a flower shop. It was filled with lilies. Lilies which came in just about every color and hue visible to the human eye. They blossomed beautifully, each and every one of them perfect with out a single torn petal or bent leaf. 

"James?" Someone called out from behind him. Her turned around and his eyes widened. 

"S...Star?" He stuttered. Sure enough, there was Steorra, in all her Asian elegance. 

"I was just about to leave," she said, "Do you need a ride?" 

James stared at her some more. She, like Lily, was also older, yet seemed much more...normal than the hysterical Lily. 

"Are you all right, James?" she waved her hands in front of his face. 

"Uh...yea," James grunted. 

"So do you need a ride home or not?" Steorra repeated her offer. 

James looked out the door behind him and realized that he did not know where he was at all. "Yeah, thanks," he said. 

"Okay, hold on, let me get my jacket," Steorra took off the cream-colored apron that said "Lily Burst by Star" and hung it up on a took. She took a light blue jacket on another hook and put it on, grabbed her purse and headed out. James followed her. Steorra paused to lock the door to her flower shop before heading behind the store. From what James could see, the shop was located in a very posh neighborhood, right by a large cluster of manor estates. James was led to a shiny, sleet, silver car. Even though he knew nothing of muggle cars, James could tell that it was very expensive just by the look of it and wondered how Star made so much money with a flower shop that sold only lilies. 

"So how did you get all the way out here?" Steorra asked as they drove. 

"Walked," James replied. 

Steorra gave a small laugh, "No, seriously." 

"I seriously did!" James nodded his head vigorously, as if to assert himself. 

"But you must've walked at least twenty-five miles!" Steorra exclaimed. 

"Oh, well, I've been meaning to get some exercise," James said rather unconvincingly. 

"Exercise," Steorra retorted, "Look at you! You're all skin and bones!" She sounded very much like a mother to James, "Why don't you and Lil have dinner with me and Sirius tonight?" 

James' face snapped over to Steorra, "Sirius? He's here too?" 

"What do you mean, 'he's here too?' He's always been here! You guys have been best friends since like sixth grade!" Steorra said. 

---------------------------------------------------------------- 

Lily was pale and trembling as she looked into the eyes of Albus Dumbledore, which held none of that usual life and sparkle Lily was used to seeing. This only sank Lily's heart more. 

Sirius spoke, "He's dead, isn't he?" Lily gasped. 

Dumbledore shook his head, "No. He is on the border between life and death." 

"Yes, we know that," Lily said. 

"No, no, no," Dumbledore said, "I mean literally on the plane border between that of this world and the next." He received blank looks from Lily and Sirius. 

"Have you heard of angels?" Dumbledore asked. 

Sirius gave a dry laugh, "Yeah. They're oversized fairies muggles thought up, aren't they?" 

"I'm afraid not, Mr. Black. Angels are real," Dumbledore leaned forward, as if about to begin a fantastic tale, "They are the most powerful of magical beings, even more so than wizards. They take the shape of a human and appear in every aspect of being human, other than their powers." Dumbledore paused, "Powers such that only a select few have witnessed before. They angels, they control destiny and fate. In a way, every event that has taken place, every victory and failure of not only wizards, but also muggles have been planned and conceived by the angels. They are neutral in the universe. They are neither good nor evil. They work only to keep the balance, so that either side will gain too much sway over events." 

"Wait, so they help dark wizards too?" Sirius asked, not quite believing Dumbledore's tale. 

"Yes, when the scales are tipped," Dumbledore replied. 

"So why don't they just make fate so that nothing is every unbalanced or something?" Sirius asked. 

"Ah, even being able to control the elements, from water to wind to fire, the angels cannot control one thing. Free will," Dumbledore answered, "The angels cannot do anything if a human does not want his or her destiny. They can only do so much to manipulate events." 

"But what does this do to explain about the stuff that's happened?" Lily questioned. 

"Everything, Miss Evans, from Mr. Potter's undead state to Mr. Black's lack of injuries. I'm surprised I didn't figure it out when Miss Hallicomb was killed." Dumbledore went on. "Some beings are pre-destined to play a vital part some time in their life regarding the balance. Such beings are given a guardian angel to protect them throughout their lives, or until their part in destiny is fulfilled. The angels watch over their charges every moment of everyday, if not physically, then in some way no one knows of. They...destroy their charge's enemies and anyone who may bring harm to him or her, as long as their charge wishes it...and they also," Dumbledore looked directly into Sirius' eves, "They also transfer any injuries, both physical and mental, onto their own bodies, perhaps even avert death for their charge." 

Sirius comprehended the magnitude of this statement and his face paled. He felt dizzy and nauseous. "Excuse me," he mumbled and ran out of the infirmary. 

Dumbledore continued, as if this was the reaction he'd expected all along from Sirius. 

"You saw the light emitted by Miss Ming, did you not?" 

Lily nodded. 

"That light is meant to protect a guardian angel's charges. Anyone other than Sirius who was trapped in it would be in a state of eternal sleep, consumed by their worst fears," Dumbledore finished. His face seemed slack and colorless, his hair was much more white than Lily had remembered. 

"But when Star saw Sirius bleeding...she kept on screaming 'I'm still here.' What was that about?" Lily asked. 

Dumbledore shook his head, "That...you can probably only find out from Steorra herself, and even she may not know or remember." 

"Will he ever wake up?" Lily asked, looking mournfully toward James, afraid of the answer. 

"Supposedly, the only way to bring them out of their sleep is for the victim to overcome his or her fears. Unfortunately, I don't thing anyone has ever been able to do that," Dumbledore gave a heavy sigh and looked over at James with hopelessness. 

Lily shuddered involuntarily as she imagined what James what be going through. James didn't seem to be afraid of anything. What was going on in his mind? Were their screaming banshees? Fierce dragons? Unbearable pain? A gruesome death? Her heart sank more and more as these ideas suggested themselves in her mind. 

"A Pensieve," Steorra had woken up and moaned weakly from her bed, "Use a Pensieve." 

"What?" Lily rushed over to Steorra's side, "What's a Pensieve?" 

"A container for one's thoughts," Dumbledore answered her question, "And that is a most excellent suggestion, and I thing I happen to have one in my office somewhere." Dumbledore, seemingly hopeful, walked off. 

Not long after he left, Sirius entered, a bit more composed than before, and yet still pale. "So we have a way to wake up James?" he asked offhandedly. 

"Yeah...I guess so," Lily answered. 

An awkward silence ensued. 

"I'm sorry, Lil," Steorra finally said. 

"What for?" 

"Well, just about everything," Steorra paused, "and especially about James." 

Lily looked at Star for a little bit, as if comprehending whether Star was really worth it to be a friend with. Finally, she broke into a smile, "We'll get James back, don't worry, and I'll forgive you for any future occasions where an apology is necessary, okay?" 

Steorra nodded and smiled back. She turned her gaze towards Sirius, "And how's my eye candy holding up to everything?" 

"Fine," Sirius said darkly, "Other than the fact that the Gryffindor Quidditch team is down a Chaser and a Seeker and the first match is in two weeks and you guys haven't practiced all season." 

"Oh, shut up. It's not like you're even on the team," Steorra said teasingly. 

"Yeah, well, i bet a lot of galleons on Gryffindor winning the Hogwarts Championship, and even more on you guys winning over Durmstrang," Sirius sulked. 

"Don't be such an insensitive ass, Sirius" Lily chided, "Can you see that this isn't the best time to talk about all this?"

Sirius muttered, "Sorry," and sat back on the bed by Steorra's. There was more awkward silence until Dumbledore finally came in with a silver basin filled to the brim with a silvery liquid.

"One Pensieve, as ordered," Dumbledore said. He had that old air of enigma back, as if he knew exactly what to do that noe one else could possibly think of. "I assume that you two will be going?" He looked at Lily and Sirius. They gave him affirmative nods, thought not exactly sure what was going to happen to them.

"Me too," Steorra said from behind them.

"Oh, I don't think that's quite possible as I do not look forward to being cursed by madam Pomfrey," Dumbledore said, "An I do think it best if you stayed in bed."

Steorra was about to protest when Sirius shoved a hand in her face and said with an irritated look, "Ming, you head the man. bed rest. So stay, be a good girl, and daddy will bring you some candy," Sirius paused and after some thought, added, "Maybe."

Steorra made a rude gesture and watched longingly as Dumbledore beckoned the other two forth.

Lily and Sirius watched in awe as Dumbledore touched the tip of his wand to James' temple and pulled out a long strand of silvery stuff that was placed in the basin.

"Inside, no, now." Dumbledore motioned, "And remember that only James will be able to see you, not his thoughts."

"Right, but how exactly do we get inside?" Lily asked uncertainly.

"By sticking you heads into his thoughts, of course," Dumbledore said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Sirius eyed the silvery liquid with suspicion, but closed his eyes and dunked his head in, expecting to hit the bottom of the basin. But he felt a cold surge as the rest of his body was sucked in. Sirius found himself in the middle of a black and white world in front of a tall, elegant skyscraper. He looked up, hoping to see the reassuring face of Dumbledore looming in the sky. Nothing, only a dark sky and tiny twinkling stars. Lily suddenly appeared beside him. They seemed to be the only bits of color in this strange, unfamiliar world of James Potter's thoughts.

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All right, chapter eight is finally done. And most puzzles are solved...kind of...not really. But don't stop reading and reviewing, because there's more excitement and adventure to come! Yes, that's right! Keep on reading this story cuz it'll only get better...I hope. Anyway, if this chapter is especially horribly typed, you should've looked at the original...I like forgot how to conjugate or something. Anyway, we're getting a new roof and the endless pounding that woke me up at 8 this morning is still going at...6 in the afternoon...oy...and it's like 86 outside...what's the point of living in Michigan if I have to put up this kind of heat? I mean, I already deal with the freezing winters, why the sweltering summers??? Life isn't fair I tell ya, not fair!!! Grrr...


	9. Chapter 9

Oy…you have no idea how long it took me to write this chapter…I'm clearly not getting enough caffeine. Anyway, school starts next Monday…it's so dumb cuz they're like report to your passports (like homeroom) for you schedules on your first day but they don't bother to tell you what you passport is…ugh…I hope I don't get that evil snack bar teacher…he's um…easily offended…thinks I called him a Nazi or something once and screamed his head off at me…geez…um…I'm rambling as if someone cared…yeah, ok here's chapter nine. 

New A/N: Er...I decided to restart this fan fic after um...reading Harry Potter over the weekend. So anyway, I had this chapter done over the summer but never got done typing it. I'm of course, supposed to be analyzing, in essay form, the role of women in A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (go and read it) and doing my formal outline and Summary of Evidence for my history of internal assessment (the wonders of IBs), so nothing like procrastinating.

There's a large amount of dragging in this chapter for some reason, no I don't mean cross-dressing, just random characters pulling people random places.

So read and review ppl, read and review! 

Chapter Nine : : Sirius 

"Is that him?" Lily pointed at the back of someone with spiky and tousled hair. He was the only bit of color in the place. 

"Yep, really stands out, doesn't he?" Sirius said. 

"Yeah, probably because he's the only one who's in Technicolor," Lily replied. 

"Technicolor?" Sirius gave her a quizzical look. 

"Color, Sirius, color," Lily looked exasperated. 

"Uh…right," Sirius said absentmindedly and quickly pulled Lily through the door of a building before it closed. 

"Wonder what he's doing here," Sirius mumbled as he looked around the huge entrance hall of the building. The whole hall was made of gold and marble. The floor was white marble with gold gilding and the walls were gold plated with majestic swirls that turned and twisted around each other that, if looked at for too long, made one dizzy. Giant pillars reached up to the vaulted ceiling to some infinite height. Footsteps and voices and an occasional telephone ring echoed through the massive chamber. Well, that's what it would have been had there been color.

Lily giggled as she turned his attention toward shiny gold lettering on the back of the marble entrance hall. 

"Sirius Technologies?" There was a dog howling up at a star next to the embossed letters. 

"What the hell?" Sirius barely got a good look at the rest of the hall before being dragged by Lily into the elevator James had just stepped into. 

"Do you think he can see us?" Lily asked. It was evident that James could as his eyes widened. At the same time, Sirius and Lily were stunned too as they recognized the two women next to James. 

"Sorry to say this, but Star seems to being doing better than you," Sirius eyed the grown up replicas of Steorra and Lily up and down, "And I don't remember her boobs being that big." 

"Shut up, moron," Lily elbowed him, hard, and looked at James. 

"Hi James, how are you?" she said pleasantly. 

James rubbed his eyes and looked at them again, "Sirius? Lily?" 

"Yes?" the grown up Lily answered. 

"Yeah, yeah, it's us. But shut up because no one else can see us," Sirius whispered quickly. 

"You don't have to whisper, you know, it's not like they can hear us either," Lily said. "But he's right James. We'll have to meet you somewhere where we can talk in private." 

James continued staring at them with a stunned look. 

"James, hon, are you all right?" The grown-up Lily asked concernedly. 

"Yes…yes, I think so," James replied, and looked away. 

The elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open. 

"The fifty-seventh floor?" Lily gasped, "Oh geez…I'm…I think I'm going to hyperventilate." 

"Afraid of heights?" Sirius chuckled. 

"Gee, ya think?" Lily snapped and timidly stepped out of the elevator. 

"Come on, it's not like you can see how far up you—" Sirius stopped as he stepped into the hall, and his breath was taken away. The corridor was really a giant hall, much like the entrance hall, or rather, a glass version of it. The walls, the floor was all made of glass. Below, you could see all the way down to the first floor entrance hall, which was just a tiny golden glow. Apparently, the middle of the building was hollow. All around them, the view was breathtaking through the walls, with everything within one hundred miles visible; even in black and white, it was just amazing. Glass doors led to different corridors, apparently all made of glass. A few people came in and out through the glass doors, all rushing to et whatever they were doing done quickly as to get off of this floor quickly. 

"You were saying?" Lily said and shuddered as she took a look through the windows, or rather the walls. 

"Um…yeah…sorry," Sirius said and followed the party of Steorra, Lily and James through one of the glass doors. 

The women's' high heels clicked almost annoyingly against the floor of the tunnel-like hallway, made entirely of glass. They walked for what seemed like an eternity as the trek was slow. No one wanted to put too much pressure on the glass floor. Finally, they arrived at a set of black, wooded doors. The Sirius Technologies logo that was in the entrance hall was on this set of doors too. 

Steorra pushed them open, revealing a huge office. A good-sized housed could've fit in there. The office was made of glass and the black wood the door was made of. Lights were set around the room, the glass reflecting and refracting the rays in a million different directions. 

There was a black desk at the head of the room, and behind it, sat Sirius Black, about ten years older in a wrinkled-looking white dress shirt, his hair tied back in a ponytail, staring at his computer screen and eating a slice of pizza. 

"Sirius!" Steorra exclaimed, "I told you we were going out to eat tonight with the Potters! Why are you eating already?" 

Sirius looked up nervously at Steorra," Oh ha, funny thing happened, hon. You see, there was a pizza boy…and he got lost…and came in to ask for directions…and…" 

"A pizza boy came up to the fifty-seventh floor to ask for directions?" Steorra raised an eyebrow. 

"There's a surprise," Lily retorted silently as she and the young Sirius stood at the back of the room. "Always knew you'd marry Steorra."

"This isn't the future, it's what James imagines...and he's pretty wacked out," Sirius said and looked up at Steorra, "But wow...she's really hot right now. I think James gave her a nose job too." 

"Um…tell you what, Star. I'll buy out that other flower shop down the street from yours and a new car or whatever toy you want," grown-up Sirius said. 

Sirius and Lily motioned to James, who jumped and then said, "Uh...I need to use the bathroom, okay?" and quickly left the room.

They traversed back through the glass corridor and onto the landing.

"Who are you people?" were the first words out of James' mouth.

"Lily and Sirius," Lily replied.

"No. Lily and Sirius are in there," James motioned to the door they came out of. "You two are figments of my imagination."

"Then why are you talking to us?" Sirius asked.

James had no response to this.

"Anyway, we're here to take you out of this weird muggle world...despite my...success," Sirius said, rather aloofly.

"No, no no. There is no other world. There is the real world and ...and..." James' voice trailed off. "Look, I want to believe you two. But how am I suppose to when no one else can see you, can prove that you exist?"

"We exist! This world doesn't! Come on, I don't believe you!" Sirius' temper was rising, "how can you just throw away your whole life for...for nothing?"

"This isn't nothing!" James spat vehemently, "I have a job, a wife, and friends!"

Lily slapped him across the face, "Look at you! This isn't you life! This is a life being consumed by your worst fears!"

"Fears? How can I be afraid of a normal life?" He stopped. "Okay, you know what? Why am I even talking to you? You two don't even exist!" And he turned to walk away.

"You wanna know your worst fears, James?" Sirius yelled to his back James stopped. "You're afraid of a life without magic! You're afraid of being trapped in a loveless marriage! And most of all, you're afraid of me being more successful than you are!"

James spun around, looking livid. "You don't exist!" He screamed and ran through the doors to the glass corridors. The doors slammed shut with a resonating bang.

"Well, I think we really got through to him," Sirius said calmly as the door swung back and forth a few times before coming to a complete stop.

There was a whoosh of wind and Dumbledore appeared at their side. "It's time to go," he said and waved his wand. Sirius felt another cold surge of air rushing past him as they once again landed in the infirmary. Someone bopped him on the heard. He turned around. There stood Steorra, who seemed to have grown a couple of feet over the last hour or so. She looked angry.

"Gee, ya think you could be anymore subtle?" She snapped. "You were supposed to help James get over his fears, not make him even more afraid!"

"Ow! Sorry Star..." Sirius rubbed his head, "How was I supposed to know that James would be that stubborn? Anyway, I'd stop hitting me if I were you, seeing as how you're just hurting yourself."

"No, No, mister. I absorb your pain when I feel like it, not automatically." Nevertheless, Sirius felt his pain suddenly subsiding and Steorra rubbing her head in the same spot Sirius had been nursing on his own.

"Anyway, if anyone has a great idea, now would be the time to share," Sirius said, looking form Star to Lily to Dumbledore and then back at Star.

"Can't we just pull him out of that world like you pulled us out?" Lily looked to Dumbledore.

"I'm afraid not. James is a permanent part of his thoughts. You two were not," Dumbledore shook his head.

"Isn't there some spell we could use?" Sirius suggested.

Dumbledore shook his head again.

"No, no. What we need to do is to make him realize how much more he loved this life than that muggle one he's convinced of right now," Steorra said assertively, "We need to gather as many people as possible so that he knows. And someone needs to explain to him why he's in a muggle world, and i think that should be me, seeing as how I brought this upon him and all..."

"No," Lily said firmly, "You need bed rest after this whole...ordeal, and if it makes you feel any better, Sirius will stay behind to look after you."

"Wait a minute! What--" Sirius' protest was cut off with Lily giving him her most scathing glare.

"If you were right about James' fears, and I'm pretty sure they were close, I don't think James needs the thought that you might be better than him to screw this up again." Lily said.

"It's not going to affect him. If anything, it should--"

Steorra shoved her hand into Sirius' face. "You heard the woman. You need to stay here. And since I managed to talk Madam Pomfrey into allowing me to go back to Gryffindor, we have all night to share our innermost feelings and embarrassing moments," Steorra said all this with the utmost dignity.

Sirius growled and trudged tot he door.

"Oh, and will you please send peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin, and the Gryffindor Quidditch team along?" Dumbledore called after Sirius.

"They get to go and I don't?" Sirius sighed, "life is unfair."


	10. Chapter 10

W00t! A whole entire chapter! I lost the last few pages, so I just rewrote the chapter. I spent like 4 hours toiling over it, after reading 600 pages in the last book. Fun, fun. I really should get going on my essay for lit…it's a bit tacky and I took a few plot shortcuts (this chapter, I mean), but other than that, it should be fine.

So read and review ppl, read and review!

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Chapter Ten :: Steorra/Sirius

Steorra ran up and down the corridors as she and Sirius made their way down to the Gryffindor common room. Save for the holes in her back, which were heavily swathed in bandages, there was nothing a little help from Madam Pomfrey couldn't heal. The bandages wrapped around her upper torso was tight, cutting off her circulation, which she supposed was a good thing, as that meant the bleeding would stop. She occasionally ran around Sirius and jumped on him to make him give her a piggy-back ride for a flight of stair.

"Hey, are you sure you're okay?" Sirius asked, "You seem a bit…hyper…" They'd reached the Gryffindor common room, Sirius panting a little from the effort of carrying Steorra up the final two flights of stairs required to reach the tower.

"Oh, yeah, fine. I might have taken a bit too much Tylenol, but I'm fine other than that."

"Tylenol?"

"Muggle painkillers. Really quite useful. Don't know what I'd do without them," Steorra waltzed around the common room, a phantom in the last dying glows of the fire.

"Pain?"

"Oh, yes. You wouldn't believe the pain I'm in most of the time. You really should think about therapy and taking a load off. Any mental pain from you equals physical pain for me. But nothing a bit of Tylenol can't handle," Steorra waltzed into a large armchair by the fire, looking a little more sober now.

Sirius reflected up what Steorra had just said. He was happy most of the time, wasn't he? Yes, there was the loads of crap from his family for not being in Slytherin.

_ "Gryffindor's nothing but a load of mudbloods,"_ his mother had told him and tried to get him a transfer into Slytherin. Thankfully, Dumbledore had refused.

_"That stupid old ass, it's about time he dropped dead,"_ Mrs. Black had said after that.

But other than that, he was fine. He had loyal friends who would stand by him no matter what, astonishingly good looks (Sirius smiled at this), and a family, a weird family, but at least a family. And there was the Black family name, not to mention the seemingly endless Black family fortune to back him. Sirius had it made. So what was Steorra rambling on about? Must be the Tylenlol. But wasn't he the reason she was on Tylenol in the first place? Sirius didn't want Star to be in pain, especially if Sirius seemed to be the source of it all.

"Go to bed, Siri," Steorra said, breaking the silence, "Don't worry about what I just said. The drugs really go to my head sometimes." She trudged tiredly up the stairs and into the girl's dormitories.

Sirius roused Remus, Peter and as many of the Gryffindor Quidditch team as he could find before falling into bed himself, not realizing what a long day it had been. So many events had occurred, each intertwined with the others. At that moment, Sirius wanted to fall asleep and never wake up again. He turned over and slammed his fit into the stone wall. Damn! This wasn't fair! Not at all! He was only seventeen! He just wanted to get laid and have a good time! He didn't want to be some stupid chose idiot who'd wander off and get himself killed for the greater good. Why him? What had he done to deserve this load of shit dumped on him?!

A cold hand touched his arm. Sirius turned to see Steorra silhouetted in the weak light of dawn. She laid down next to him and wrapped her arms around his torso. Sirius tensed, then relaxed and felt calmness wash over him. His eyelids felt heavy and roped down. He was asleep before he realized what was going on.

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Sirius was rudely smacked awake. He groaned and opened his eyes, squinting at the mid-morning sun streaking through the windows. The dormitory was empty save for Steorra, who lay beside him, sprawled and taking up most of the bed. It was her arm that seemed to have accidentally fonged him across the face. A giant wet stain was on her pillow, where her drool had gathered.

"Star, get up," Sirius prodded her with his foot as he clambered out of bed, stripping as he headed for the showers.

"Mmmfhmm," was all that came out of Steorra's mouth as she pulled a pillow over her head.

"Hey, come on, Sleeping Beauty, it's 11:30," Sirius said as he doubled back for some towels.

Steorra peaked out from under her pillow, "It's just Transfiguration. Do we really need to know how to changed books into vases?"

"No, but do you really want detention with McGonagall for the rest of the year?"

"You've got a nice butt," Steorra giggled as she buried herself under the covers again.

"And here I thought you were a morning person," Sirius sighted and stepped into the showers.

When Steorra did wake up, it was being bodily dragged out of bed by Sirius, subsequently also receiving a large bruise on her hip. After laying, apparently passed out on the floor for a few minutes, Steorra stood up and made her way to her own dorms, her head groggy as if she was hung over.

Sirius stood waiting for her at the entranceway of the common room. They set off for Transfiguration at a brisk walk, remembering that class was when all this fiasco started and at the same time not wanting to risk more detention than necessary.

Steorra pushed open the door to the class only to find no one there but McGonagall. The hole in the floor had been seamlessly repaired.

"Ah, Ming, Black. I see you two have finally decided to attend classes. I think it shall be…a month's detentions should do it." She said.

"But no one else is here either," Steorra protested, dreading the thought of missing a month's worth of Quidditch practice. James would have her skin. Her heart sunk at the thought of James. Whatever Dumbledore's plan may have been, she desperately hoped that it worked.

"That's because they're all in the infirmary seeing to Mr. Potter. If you two had been on time, you would be up there with them," Professor McGonagall replied curtly.

Sirius and Star stood unmoving.

"Well, don't just stand there gawking, you tow. Go up there and see to James," Professor McGonagall shooed them out of the room.

Steorra and Sirius set off at a run for the infirmary, their heavy bags clanking painfully at their sides. There's more bruises, Steorra thought darkly.

They arrived to find the infirmary crowded and filled to the brim; a very indignant Madam Pomfrey flittering about the edges, trying unsuccessfully to quiet everyone down.

"Well, really, now. You lot aren't the only ones in this infirmary. There are others who need silence and sleep," she tried to shout.

Steorra and Sirius forced their way to the center of the crowd, where James sat up on the bed, propped up by some pillows, looking a bit pale, but otherwise fine. Not to mention at least awake. Lily sat at the foot of the bed, her hand clasped tightly over James', looking very happy indeed. Someone, probably the Gryffindor Quidditch team had managed to steal a Snitch and it flittered over everyone's heads, creating a constant, droning buzz. Remus sat by the bed railing on the ground, head drooping and lightly dozing. Peter was dead asleep at his side, his tiny form seemed even smaller curled up into a ball.

Steorra threw her arms around James and started sobbing uncontrollably. "Oh, I'm sorry, James," she managed between heart-wrenching, heavy sobs and the spasmodic paroxysms that shook her body. "I'm sorry, I couldn't control it...it's the blood." James was taken aback by this and patted her back awkwardly. 

Sirius blanched as he saw bright red tears spring from Steorra's eyes, a bright red stain covered James' chest from where the tears had fallen. Sirius sat down beside James and pulled Steorra up, trying to cover up the crimson tears. "Now's not the time," he whispered into her ear, wiping away the tears with his sleeve, thankful that his robes were black. James realized this, knotted his brows in confusion, and pulled his covers up to cover the stain. Madam Pomfrey had finally been heard as she walked around, whacking everyone over the head with a broom. Most filed out of the room. The Gryffindor Quidditch Team lingered for a bit before finally being shooed out. James put on his sweet act and persuaded Madam Pomfrey to let Sirius, Lily, and Steorra stay. Peter and Remus were carried off to other beds. Steorra wondered what made them so tired.

"What the hell was that?" James asked as soon as he made sure no one was within hearing range, and looked at the dried tear streaks plastered to Steorra's cheeks.

"Tears...I guess," Sirius answered slowly.

"Of course," Lily said, "That's why that one night with the...Marie thing, there was blood smeared all over her but minimal amount of blood on the...body. It's because it was Star's blood."

"Come again?" James asked.

Sirius silently shook his head at Lily, who was about to launch into a huge explanation. "It's...it's a genetic defect thing...not enough vitamins, that kind of thing..."

James didn't seem convinced but didn't pursue the topic further.

"Good to see you up and at it again," Sirius smiled at James, wondering how he'd react. "So how'd they get you to wake up?" Sirius asked in a casual, off-handed way.

"Well...there was an awful lot of people shouting my name. I suppose I had no choice but to come back," James answered.

"That's it? That was Dumbledore's wonderful plan?" Sirius sounded incredulous.

"Yeah, basically."

They chatted some more. The subject of Sirius and Lily's visit to James' mind was not broached. The whole time, Steorra cried, uncontrollably, blaming herself and drowning in guilt (quite uncharacteristic of her). Lily did what she could, but it didn't help much. Neither did Tylenol. There was no end in sight to the tears. They were the only ones in the room now.

Finally, an exasperated James sighed. "Star, shut up, will ya? I'm expecting a full two hours of Quidditch practice tonight and I can't have you in pieces like that."

Steorra stopped her sobbing and looked up, but not before messily wiping her nose with Sirius' robe. "Don't worry," she said miserably, not noticing Sirius' disgusted look on his face, "I've got a month of detention with McGonagall to serve."

"Wha--what?!" James sputtered, "a whole friggin' month? I haven't even managed that."

"Yeah, well, I was tired, and I didn't wake up until 11:30," Steorra shrunk back a little, "and Siri here did the same," she added quietly, as if that would make everyone all right-- that Sirius did it too.

James looked from one to the other, and a sly smile crept across his face. "Wait...don't tell me..."

"No, it wasn't anything like that," Steorra turned a nice shade of Christmas red, "I mean yeah, we slept in the same bed, but--"

"You guys slept in the same bed?" Lily's eyes lit up.

"But nothing happened," Steorra protested.

"You're telling me, that you put a pretty girl into bed with this sexaholic, and nothing happened?" Lily guffawed in disbelief.

"Well, it's true..." Steorra managed weakly.


	11. Chapter 11

Hmm...yeah...no one is reading this thing, I realize that...but gawww...Harry Potter is just so damn addictive. This is a weird filler chapter cuz I couldn't think of what to write. But it's unexpected...So if you do like this, read and review!

That's right, read and review ppl, read and review!

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Chapter Eleven :: James 

"Alrighty, everyone. I want a good, solid practice today! No goofing off on your brooms, no beating each other senseless with the Bludgers, and you'll all be glad to know that I've gotten Star out of detention due to my amazing skills of rhetoric and persuasion." James looked at the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. There were the Beaters-- Beatrice Magnelli and Jonathan Atwood. Though they looked rather imposing, they were just as manuverable as any Seeker. There were the Chasers-- Anthony Walker, Morgan Pickney, and Steorra Ming, the fastest, most agile Chasers you'll find on any of the House Teams. Christian Kirchner, the German exchange student. Though he barely spoke English, he was a damn good Keeper. And of course, there was himself, James Potter-- Super Seeker Extraordinaire.

"Our first games of the tournament is with Ravenclaw on Saturday," he continued, "that gives us...oh...three days, two hours, thirty-eight minutes, and..."James peered at his watch, "sixteen seconds to prepare to beat the crap out of them."

"You know," Beatrice began, "I heard Ravenclaw is actually good this year, ever since they got that new Seeker...what was his name..."

"The hot one?" Steorra piped in, "With the gorgeous black hair and those beautiful blue eyes?" 

"Yeah, him," Beatrice nodded enthusiastically.

James scowled. The rest of the team, all male, groaned. "Hey. This isn't Gossipville. Anyway, no pretty boy is going to stand between me and a free trip up north.

"James, we're all probably gonna be able to go to Durmstrang anyway. Stop thinking like a cheapskate," Steorra said, "Anyway, let's just practice."

The seven of them kicked off the ground on their brooms and soared into the air.

"Just a few warm-up laps, and then I'll let the balls loose!" James shouted over the loud rushing of the wind.

No sooner had he finished speaking when, zoom! A rogue Bludger came out of nowhere and missed James' head by mere inches. He looked down onto the ground. A tiny robed figure with a head full of blonde hair stood there, pointing and seemingly laughing at them. Around him, were more robed figures, also all pointing and laughing.

There was a painful groan somewhere over his right shoulder. The Bludger had smashed into Jonathan Atwood's face. Blood poured out of his nose.

"Lucius Malfoy," James heard Steorra growl, "I'm gonna castrate you, your worthless piece of shit!" She sped past James, a blur, and directly into the crowd gathered on the ground.

James made a half-hearted attempt to stop her, but sat back and watched as Steorra pulled out of her dive, just before hitting the ground. The Slytherins all scattered. 

Spells were exchanged as sparks flew between the dueling wands of Steorra and Lucius. The Gryffindors lowered their brooms to near ground level as they enjoyed the fight. Lucius seemed to be gaining the upper hand. Steorra dodged an impediment jinx, dropped her wand, and ran head first into Lucius, knocking him over and his wand fell onto the grass. It had turned into a fist-fight. Occasional insults were hurled. Spells were shouted with no effect without the wand. At last, after several long minutes of this, Beatrice walked up to the two wrestling on the ground, and gave Lucius a good, sound whack to the noggin.

A small audience, mostly Gryffindors who had come out to watch the practice, had gathered. Lily shot out of the crowd, running. She roughly dragged Steorra up.

"Are you stupid?!" She snapped. "Do you think there's gonna be any more Quidditch for you after this?! And you!" She turned to James, "Are you out of your friggin' mind? Letting her beat up Lucius Malfoy?"

James gave a pitiful, pathetic shrug. "Well…she did get beat up pretty bad too…besides…he started it…" He stared resentfully at the still, unconscious form of Lucius, lying limply on the ground. Then, his face lit up. He took out his wand and pointed it at Lucius. "_Obliviate!_" He said. "There," he turned proudly to Lily, "See? Problem solved. I trust none of you are gonna tell," James turned threateningly to the crowd, lovingly caressing his wand. "Sirius and I have been developing a new hex. It's called the Twitching Hex. Anyone care to be our first test subject?"

The crowd eyed each other nervously. "No James, certainly not; no James, your secret is safe with us," and scattered.

Lily gave him a disgusted look and stalked off.

"Wha?" James looked around, confused.

"Hmm…I think I broke a few fingers…" Steorra held her hand up to the fading light, trying to wriggle fingers that bent at odd places. She flinched as arrows of pain shot through her arm.

James surveyed her up and down. Her robes were torn and grass-stained. There were a few cuts and scrapes here, a nice welt across her left cheek, and a split lip that bled profusely. She looked okay.

"Er…James? Shouldn't she go to the hospital wing?" Anthony Walker asked, cringing a little at the sight of blood.

"Well…those fingers might be a bit of a problem…" James paused and thought for a moment. "But you really need to work on catching the Quaffle with your left hand, Star."

Steorra raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I can't quite feel my nose," Jonathan said nasally.

"Okay, okay," James held up his hands. "I'll let you guys off the hook this time. Just tell McGonagall you fell off your broom or something if she asks." Steorra and Jonathan started to walk away. 'Oh, and here, take Malfoy with you!" Lucius had begun to stir on the ground.

James prodded him on the side with his foot. Lucius' eyes blinked open. "Do you know what day it is?"

"Whaaa…?" Lucius looked dazed. "Where am I?"

"Good," James helped him up. He pointed to Steorra, who stood impatiently waiting. "Go and follow that girl to the hospital wing. You took a nasty fall off of your broom there."

Lucius nodded faintly and followed like an obedient monkey-boy.

James watched them disappear into the school and turned back to face his team. None of them seemed to be in the mood for practice anymore, thanks to the rather entertaining distraction.

"I'm guessing none of you are really up for practice today," James said.

There were murmurs of exceedingly large amounts of homework and tiring classes. The general response was a resounding "no." James let them go. He himself had some rather long essays to write for Binns. He took a few laps around the Quidditch pitch as a joy ride and went to the locker rooms to change. 

The sun had gone down as he made his way there, and groped around for his school robes. He found them and changed in the dark. It had been an unusually warm day. The cool metal of the lockers felt wonderful to James' skin. He leaned back against a locker and fell to the ground. The events in the last few days had been too much for him. Though he pretended to be perfectly unfazed, it was hard to look Sirius in the eye. When he had been in that…dream world, he had seen both Sirius and Lily, telling him that it was all a ruse…something about being trapped in his own fears…his fear of Sirius being better than him. it was true, wasn't it? James led, but never without Sirius' consent. James was the puppet with Sirius as the puppeteer. Sirius was the good-looking one, the rich one, and direct descendant of the Blacks. James was from some unknown wizarding family. And Star…there was something about her. This whole thing had something to do with Star. James had seen, that day in transfiguration, the brilliant light erupting from her. It was because of that that he'd gone into a coma in the first place. Of that, James was sure of. Then, there was just yesterday, those blood tears Star cried. James had seen the look exchanged between Sirius and lily. They both knew something about Star that he didn't. But what was it? James hated this, this being kept out thing, the whole being alone thing. He had been happy for the first time in his life at Hogwarts. But being alone again might not be so bad. His friends can abandon him. So what? He was used to it. He twirled his wand around; tiny red and gold sparks shot out. James twirled his wand. The sparks fell into line and did the same. This kind of entertainment had sustained James through hours of History of Magic and Arithmancy.

Suddenly, the door burst open. A dark figure stood silhouetted there. James was stirred out of his trace-like reverie. The moon had risen and shone directly into his eyes.

"James, is that you?" Sirius' voice called out, "Come one! Party in the common room! That stink sap we booby trapped Rutherford' office with—"There was a loud crash, thump and two simultaneous "oomphs" sounding from the last row of lockers at the far end.

James hoisted himself up off of the floor, wand at his side; Sirius did the same. They tread cautiously and lit their wands. What they found was Steorra and Lucius, rather naked, going at it on they floor. They had tipped a large bench over into the lockers.


End file.
